


blood of the covenant (thicker than the water of the womb)

by immajustgonnafangirl



Category: SEAL Team (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe, Ashhole, Bad Parent Ash Spenser, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Clay Spenser Whump, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, LITERALLY, Not Beta Read, Protective Bravo, Time Shenanigans, Uncle Bravo, Young Clay Spenser, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 12:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30106182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/immajustgonnafangirl/pseuds/immajustgonnafangirl
Summary: Ash Spenser joins Bravo in the months following the death of Nate Massey, and over the next two years, Bravo discovers there is something going on behind closed doors with his 6-year-old son, Clay.
Relationships: Bravo Team & Clay Spenser
Comments: 17
Kudos: 86





	blood of the covenant (thicker than the water of the womb)

Bravo Six, Ashland Spenser AKA Ash wasn’t a good person. Bravo didn’t know this yet, but they would soon enough.

He was 31, with a 6-year-old son, Clay. Ash was a sniper, but otherwise a mediocre operator. Whispers in DEVGRU told a story of how he’d made it into Tier One – being sociable and using his kid to earn brownie points with instructors. There was a brief rumour that he’d paid dirty money to some of the more corruptible Brass to get the instructors to leave him alone for the most part during SERE, but it had been squashed.

Jason knew this, but he also knew that he had to fill the gap that Nate’s death had left in the team.

~~He sees the look Alana gives him, the one that tells him that she knows that the look in his eyes is sometimes decades older than it should be~~

Ray had offered the idea of Spenser first, saying that it couldn’t hurt having another sniper on the team and that there was no harm in having someone on the team who knew no less than three Admirals by name. They got into enough situations that some pull on the Brass wouldn’t go unappreciated by their Lieutenant Commander, Eric Blackburn, the one usually stuck with cleaning up their messes.

They’d learnt a bit about him in the meantime. A husband in a deteriorating marriage held together for the sake of their son. Their only living family was his wife’s parents, who worked as missionaries in Liberia, and while he had only met them once, they seemed like alright people. Mentioned that he’d wanted Clay to spend some time with them, to see what life was like in other countries.

* * *

Cut to now, as Alana and Jason get their house ready for a team get together, and the invite had also been extended to all of their various wives, girlfriends, and kids. It was their first chance to meet Clay Spenser, even if Ash had told them that morning that his wife was unable to attend due to work scheduling issues (not that he’d ever told them what she did for a living).

Jason sets down the icebox he’d been carrying out, faintly hearing a car pull into the driveway. He ignores it, beginning to fill the box with sodas, beer, and bottles of water. He hears the backdoor open and multiple sets of footsteps, only looking up when a young voice breaks the relative silence of the afternoon.

“Uncle Jace!” He manages to brace himself just in time for Jameelah Perry to barrel into him. He stumbles back, wrapping her in a hug. Ray reaches out to knock their fists together as he walks out, depositing another batch of beer in the icebox.

He ushers Jameelah back into the house, telling her to go find her pseudo cousins, Mikey, and Emma. Through the open door, he sees Naima and Alana discussing what he can only assume to either be them or recipes.

Another car pulls up, right on time. Bravo Three, Four and Five pour through the door, with Cerberus hot on their heels. Sonny deposits two shopping bags on the counter and both Trent and Brock wander over to help unpack them. Since they didn’t have any significant others, they normally carpooled to these sorts of events, with the only stipulation being that whichever car they used had to fit Cerberus’ cage.

Brock releases the dog from his harness and Cerb wanders out to Jace and Ray. He jumps up onto one of the camp chairs they have set up, settling down. Jace has a feeling that Brock had gone on a long run, and that he had taken Cerb with him.

Ray walks over the gives Cerb belly scratches, grinning widely as the hair missile’s tongue lolls out and his eyes slide closed.

Another car pulls up, three people emerge from the vehicle. Eric Blackburn and his wife, Lauren, both come out of the front of the car, as Lisa Davis arises from the back. Davis pulls some blankets and another few folding camp chairs, and Eric takes the chairs off of her hands, making his way through the house with practised ease.

Davis joins the women in the kitchen, but not before she snags a beer from the icebox. They begin unpacking various meats and sides. The men begin setting up the grill for Sonny, joking and shoving each other as they wait for their newest edition to arrive.

* * *

Ray notices the car pull in first, gaze catching the bright blue eyes of a child in the passenger side. Jason catches that his gaze is no longer on his brothers and follows Ray's eyeline; the rest of Bravo also fall silent. Jason stands and goes back into the house to greet them, Alana meeting him on his way past the kitchen.

Clay hops out of the car without help from his dad and reaches into the footwell of his seat, pulling out some cookies that his dad had brought on the way over. Apparently, Clay was going to meet his dad's team today. He ought to be with his momma, but momma had taken some medicine earlier that day which had made her sleepy, and his dad had been forced to take Clay with him. He holds the box of cookies close to his chest as he shuts the car door and ambles after his dad, who's already halfway to the door of the house. His dad fishes his keys out of his jacket's pocket and locks the car without looking back at Clay, but his hand makes a beckoning motion before he stuffs it back into his pockets.

Clay manages to catch up to him a few seconds before the door opens, revealing a blonde woman and a menacing looking man who both greeted his day by name. 

His dad replies with a terse "Afternoon." There's a short pause before Ash notices that his son is standing next to him and introduces him to the couple; "Hayes, this is Clay. Clay say hello."

Clay looks up at the man his dad called Hayes and one hand releases the cookie box to wave shyly at the man. "Hi Mister Hayes. I brought cookies."

(He doesn't see his dad's face flicker to a scowl for a brief second before smoothing back out, but Alana does)

Hayes drops down into a crouch in front of him, a soft smile on his face. Now that he's close to Hayes' face, he can see that he isn't actually all that scary, he's just really muscly. He looks up at his dad who nods and looks back at Hayes. "Yeah, you did buddy, want to bring them in?" 

"Yes, please Mister Hayes!" Hayes stands back up and guides Clay to where the kitchen island is.

"Call me Uncle Jason, okay buddy? Your dad is my brother now." Jason indicates that he can put the cookies on the kitchen island, catching the gazes of the women around the table, all of which have decided that Clay is absolutely adorable.

"Okay, Uncle Jason." Clay clambers onto a chair and places the cookies on the kitchen island. He glances up and notices the 3 women looking down at him, and figures that they're with the team, like how the blonde woman was with Uncle Jason, or like how his momma is with his dad. "I'm Clay, nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too Clay, I'm your auntie Naima. This is Lisa, and this is Lauren, and that woman at the door is Alana. They're all your aunts too." Naima steps forward first, indicating to both of the other women as she introduces them, and they both wave. Alana walks into the kitchen and Jason turns away to walk his dad out to the backyard.

Clay's eyes go wide. "Woah, I've never had an aunt before!" His face lights up with a massive grin and he looks around excitedly. "Does this mean I have more uncles too?"

Alana takes point in answering, "Yeah buddy, 6 uncles." Clay's smile somehow gets even bigger, and he practically starts vibrating in his chair with excitement.

Jameelah chooses this moment to enter the room. "Mom, when is Clay gonna arrive? Mikey wants to meet him." Naima tucks her into a side hug for a moment before indicating to the blonde child on the island chair. Jameelah's face lights up, and she pulls away from where she was hugging her mom to instead stand next to Clay's chair. "Hey Clay, I'm Jameelah but you can call me Jam if you want, since we're cousins now. Come with me, Mikey wants to meet you" If he's confused or surprised by the sudden onslaught of information, he doesn't show it. Clay just nods vigorously and hops off the highchair without hesitation, following the young girl – now his cousin – out into the backyard where Mikey was setting up a hockey net.

"Mikey! This is Clay!" The exclamation bursts from Jameelah's lips the second she steps out into the yard, which catches the attention of Bravo who have finished greeting Ash and are beginning to settle down for the team BBQ, and a grinning 6-year-old follows her out. He doesn't look much like Ash, curly blonde hair a stark contrast to straight brown. His eyes are a piercing blue, where Ash's are a dull brown.

As Jameelah rushes past, Cerb's head perks up. When another child he doesn't know follows on his way to Mikey, he gets off the chair and follows the pair to where Mikey has set up the hockey goal post. Brock pats him on the back as he wanders past where Brock and Trent are stood, silently encouraging him to keep the kids safe.

Mikey introduces himself to Clay much in the same way that Jameelah did; a flurry of information. Clay learns that he now has 4 cousins; Mikey, Jam, Jam's little brother RJ and Mikey's big sister Emma who was out with friends and would be back in a few hours. Mikey's eyes catch something behind Clay. "Hey Cerberus! Clay this is Cerberus, he's kind of Uncle Brock's son which makes him our cousin but he's also a bit like our brother which makes him our uncle."

Clay turns around and discovers two things very quickly. One, Cerberus is a dog. Two, Cerberus is about half a second from licking his face. He manages to close his eyes just in time for Cerberus' tongue to collide with his cheek, licking a streak from his chin to his hairline. A giggle erupts from him, and his hands come up to stroke the dog, and his hands briefly collide with Jam and Mikey's, who have the same idea of petting the Malinois.

"Mikey?" Clay asks after a few moments, hands still moving through Cerberus' fur. Mikey looks up, a questioning look in his eyes. "Which one is Uncle Brock?" His gaze goes back to where the majority of the gathering is situated.

Mikey begins pointing out who's who.

"That's my dad" he points to Uncle Jason first, "and that's Uncle Ray-" "He's my dad!" Jam cuts him off excitedly. "Yeah, he's Jam's dad, and on the grill is Uncle Sonny, and Uncle Trent has the long hair" Uncle Trent has a scar on his right arm, Clay notices absently. The scar looks really big, but it also looks old, and Clay hopes it doesn't hurt much anymore. "And talking to him is Uncle Brock he's the little brother because he used to be the newest but now, he's just the youngest. And with Uncle Sonny is Uncle Eric, he's their boss but he's really cool too."

Uncle Eric is listening to Uncle Sonny rant about something or other while setting up the grill, piling charcoal into the base. Eric has an eyebrow raised and a somewhat unimpressed look on his face but catches Clay's gaze out of the corner of his eye and smiles at the trio (quartet if you include Cerberus) and nods his head in greeting. This catches the attention of Sonny who pauses both his rant and the movement of fuel to turn and wave at Clay, before turning back to Eric and continuing to complain about something or other, if Eric's face is anything to go by.

Clay's dad is speaking to Uncle Ray and Uncle Jason, with his back to the kids. They're both smiling at him, and he can only assume that his dad is smiling back. Uncle Jason offers a can of beer to his dad, and his dad accepts it without hesitation, cracking it open and taking a sip in a single smooth motion. 

~~Clay's smile dampens a little bit, and his shoulders hunch forwards ever so slightly. Dad isn't nice when he has beer.~~


End file.
